Promises. Vows people make to each other with the intention to always carry them out whether that is only once or always. They hold strong meaning to the people who make them. Well, mostly. Regardless, they indicated a level of trust in the other.
Over the many years Flynn and Yuri had been friends, and that period of time when they first met when they were more like disgruntled acquaintances, they had made many promises. Many had been kept, some had been broken, some others had just been completely forgotten about. One had remained with them for nearly that whole time though. To be the closest of friends and always be there for each other should the other need it. They were often too stubborn to actually ask or acknowledge when they needed any help though.
There was another important promise they had though, arguably the most important promise to them both. It was the one they made when they both decided to become knights. That one promise being that should either of them ever go out of line, ever abuse any power they had, the other would be the one to deal with them. To bring them down.
That one Flynn had been struggling with recently. While Yuri's crimes had been pardoned by the graces of His Highness Ioder and Her Highness Estellise it still felt wrong, to both him and Yuri, that he had received no punishment for what he had done. In the eyes of the law justice must be carried out however the beholders of those laws, of that justice, had merely brushed aside his crimes as if helping to save the world had somehow cancelled them out. While he was immensely proud of Yuri for defeating the Adephagos he still couldn't overlook the way he had murdered Ragou and Cumore.
That said he wouldn't go against the rulings of Their Highness'. They had the final say in matters of the law and to go against that would be against everything he stood for, no matter what his personal feelings on the matter were. Besides he and Yuri had already butted heads over it, and somewhat dealt with it, and frankly they still had far too many things they fought over to remain focused on that anyway. That alone wouldn't stop it nagging him from the back of his mind though.
Flynn sighed. Getting himself worked up over this was a poor use of his time. It was an even worse idea considering Yuri was due to arrive back today, he was only going to be back for a few days and being mad with him would really strain things between them. Again. They wanted to be able to just spend their little about of time together happily and if he kept this up that is definitely not how it was going to go. There was also the fact that he had something special planned for his love later and this was the last thing he should be thinking about before that...
He turned his attention back to the last of his paperwork. Hopefully that would clear his mind before he went to go meet Yuri in the Lower Quarter. He took a quick glance at the clock to see how long he had to finish it all. 9:13am. Another two and a half hours, closer to three, at the least then and that was providing Yuri had actually got up on time for his journey back which was... not all that likely he realised as he thought about it so Flynn figured he'd add another hour onto that minimum about for doing paperwork.
It had always amazed Flynn just how much Yuri would sleep when he didn't have things to do and how he became such a different person almost. Not that he'd call Yuri a morning person normally however he certainly became even less of one when he had the chance. Yet when they'd been stationed together and had to do any camping Yuri could easily be awake hours before everyone else and manage to pack away whatever he could without waking any of the others and make them all breakfast. It was quite astonishing really. There's definitely no way he would have believed him possible of something like that if he hadn't seen it firsthand that's for sure.
Flynn quickly delved into his paperwork, briefly aware that one of the palace servants brought him some tea at one point, though by the time he remembered it was there it had already gone cold. Maybe he should have got Witcher to teach him that warming spell after all... It seemed a shame to waste good tea though so he drank it anyway. He was fairly used to cold tea at this point, it happened so often it was a regular occurrence by now.
He took another glance at the clock and almost spat out the tea in surprise. It was 2:48pm. He'd spent around five and a half hours on his paperwork. He had been so engrossed he'd not even noticed the time passing. He really, really hoped this was one of those times Yuri was running spectacularly late. This date to celebrate him being back had been his idea and what kind of boyfriend would he be to be late to the date he had planned? Not that Yuri knew it was a date yet, he'd just told him he wanted to meet when he arrived.
At least he had now got through most of the paperwork he had set aside for the next few days as well so Yuri wouldn't get mad about him being busy during their time together... That would definitely be a good thing considering what he was planning for today and what he was almost completely sure would be what Yuri's response would be. If he was right, which he was certain he was, they were going to be rather busy for the next few days.
He shook his head and quickly got up, grabbing the small box on the desk and putting it in his pocket before rushing from the castle to where he and Yuri had arranged to meet. He thought he might have heard someone calling his name, most probably Sodia, but he ignored them. He was now on his time off and he was running late to his own date which was currently the most pressing matter of at all.
It didn't take him long to reach the meeting point thanks to all his knight training, just because he was now commandant didn't mean he was going to stop with his daily training though that didn't stop him from becoming out of breath after his rush, and was relieved to see Yuri nowhere in sight. Bending over a little and clutching his knees, he took a few deep breaths to catch his breath.
A few seconds later he straightened himself up. He smiled and waved back at a few people who greeted him before he looked towards the entrance from the outside of town, waiting for Yuri to arrive.
It couldn't have been more than twenty minutes before two familiar figures started walking into town, a tall, beautiful man with long dark hair and his faithful canine companion.
Flynn couldn't hold back the smile that spread across his face. He never realised how much he missed Yuri when he was away until these moments, when he saw him again for the first time in ages. He watched Yuri to walk towards him, his dear friend, his partner in all meanings of the word, his boyfriend...
Maybe, Flynn thought as Yuri got close enough for him to see the big grin on his face and Repede gazing almost knowingly by his side, just maybe, he could ignore that promise causing his conscience problems once and for all. Unless Yuri did anything else to warrant such scrutiny of course. He added the mental amendment so he wouldn't stop himself from holding him accountable for anything else. Though it wasn't important right now he still felt like it was something he had to do.
He rushed over to meet Yuri halfway, pulling him into a tight hug as they greeted each other. The love and adoration in their faces and voices was clear to everyone around them, as had always been the case really. The only ones who hadn't known about how they felt about each other before that started dating had been each other. Frankly their obliviousness had been highly amusing for all their friends and family in the Lower Quarter.
They spent some time catching up as Flynn lead Yuri around, one hand holding Yuri's hand, the other in his pocket gripping the small box tightly but gently. A mixture of excitement and nerves pumping through his veins as he took them both towards the run down little park where they had first met.
Hopefully this would be the day he could get Yuri to agree to one more promise.